Viridorari is an environmentally focused blog. The mission of Viridorari is to help you incorporate healthier, "greener" habits into your life, to benefit you, the people around you, and the environment.

Viridorari is on Twitter! Follow this blog with a mission to be up to date with what's new on Viridorari and the world of environmental activists@viridorari

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Revealing September's Animal of the Month

My experience at
an interactive zoo in Oklahoma this past summer inspired me to declare the
tiger as September’s Animal of the Month. At the GW Interactive Zoo, I had a
unique opportunity to see some of the world’s rarest tigers and hold and interact
with two tiger cubs. To read about my experience and see pictures, check out
this free write post.

While tigers are perhaps one of the
most well-known animals on earth, revered as majestic, and the subject of many
literary and poetic pieces, as a species, they are on their last legs. There
are six subspecies of tiger, all of which are endangered. This month, rather
than focus on one subspecies, I will touch on all six. Here is an overview of
each:

The Bengal tiger lives in India,
Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. The most populated subspecies, there are
approximately less than 2,500 adult individuals remaining. The weight of male
Bengal tigers ranges from 400 to 570 pounds.

The
Siberian tiger (also known as the Amur tiger), calls the Amur-Ussuri region of
eastern Siberia home. They are the largest of the subspecies, with male members
weighing as much as 660 pounds. As of 2005, there was somewhere between 330-400
Siberian tigers with about 250 breeding individuals.

The Indochina tiger is found in
China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Thailand. There are an estimated 350
individuals remaining. This subspecies is smaller and darker than the Indochina
tiger; males weigh between 330 and 430 pounds.

The Malayan tiger is only found on
the Malaysian peninsula. They number around 500 individuals, and are the second
smallest subspecies with males weighing in on average at 260 pounds. The
Malayan tiger was not considered a subspecies until 2004.

The Sumatran tiger is found only on
the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, and is critically endangered with an
estimated 400 to 500 individuals remaining. It is also the smallest subspecies,
with males weighing between 220 and 310 pounds.

The South China tiger lives in the
area it was named after. It is the most critically endangered subspecies of
tiger, and it is possible that it is extinct in the wild. It is also listed as
one of the ten most endangered animals in the world. There are 59 known South
China tigers in captivity, and efforts are being made to breed and reintroduce
them. Males weigh between 280 and 390 pounds.

Three other subspecies of tiger have
gone extinct in the past eighty years.

This month, I will be raising money
for the Panthera Corporation on Goodsearch.com. For those of you who don’t
know, using Goodsearch in place of Google or Bing allows you raise a penny for
your chosen charity every time you search something. Think about how many times
a day you Google something, and think of how quickly that could add up for
fundraising.

I am switching to Panthera
Corporation after raising $5.35 for the African Wildlife Foundation to benefit
the mountain gorilla, July’s Animal of the Month.

To find out more about Panthera,
visit their website. I will be providing more detailed information about
organizations that support tiger conservation as the month goes on.

Followers

Follow Viridorari by Email

Translate Viridorari's Content

About Me

I am a freshman in college working on a journalism major and creative writing and international politics minors. I am an environmental activist, and I am going to be marching in the Great March for Climate Action. I write an environmental blog called Viridorari, and you can find my creative writing on The Quill.